Writing With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Visuals

Studies of response to advertising images follow parallel streams: one treats visuals as sensory data; the other, operating under rhetorical theory, presumes that images are communicative artifacts. By revisiting a seminal article by Mitchell and Olson, we empirically demonstrate an alternative expl...

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Main Authors: Scott, L, Vargas, P
Format: Journal article
Published: 2007
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author Scott, L
Vargas, P
author_facet Scott, L
Vargas, P
author_sort Scott, L
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description Studies of response to advertising images follow parallel streams: one treats visuals as sensory data; the other, operating under rhetorical theory, presumes that images are communicative artifacts. By revisiting a seminal article by Mitchell and Olson, we empirically demonstrate an alternative explanation for results under the sensory approach, while also establishing the basis for complex statements like tropes. We argue that consumers read product attributes from pictures based on an emergent writing system made possible by recent communication technologies. Our theory is consistent with the historical record of communication technology and with the trajectory of research in fields that study writing systems.
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spelling oxford-uuid:8e505dd9-f68b-4455-bc8c-b6149e2b3a7b2022-03-26T22:56:53ZWriting With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to VisualsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8e505dd9-f68b-4455-bc8c-b6149e2b3a7bSaïd Business School - Eureka2007Scott, LVargas, PStudies of response to advertising images follow parallel streams: one treats visuals as sensory data; the other, operating under rhetorical theory, presumes that images are communicative artifacts. By revisiting a seminal article by Mitchell and Olson, we empirically demonstrate an alternative explanation for results under the sensory approach, while also establishing the basis for complex statements like tropes. We argue that consumers read product attributes from pictures based on an emergent writing system made possible by recent communication technologies. Our theory is consistent with the historical record of communication technology and with the trajectory of research in fields that study writing systems.
spellingShingle Scott, L
Vargas, P
Writing With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Visuals
title Writing With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Visuals
title_full Writing With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Visuals
title_fullStr Writing With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Visuals
title_full_unstemmed Writing With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Visuals
title_short Writing With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Visuals
title_sort writing with pictures toward a unifying theory of consumer response to visuals
work_keys_str_mv AT scottl writingwithpicturestowardaunifyingtheoryofconsumerresponsetovisuals
AT vargasp writingwithpicturestowardaunifyingtheoryofconsumerresponsetovisuals